Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 and associated factors among students in Ethiopia: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Tenagework Eseyneh Dagnaw; Amare Mebrat Delie; Tadele Derbew Kassie; Sileshi Berihun; Hiwot Tesfa; Amare Zewdie

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0314451

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionMarch 30, 2024
2 Aug 2024 Decision Letter - Festo Casmir Shayo, Editor PONE-D-24-12869Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 and predictors among students in Ethiopia : Systematic review and meta-analysisPLOS ONE Dear Dr. Dagnaw, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. ============================== ACADEMIC EDITOR COMMENTS: In Tables 2 to 6: Please remove all vertical lines and retain only three horizontal lines: one under the title, one above the column heading, and one between the column headings and the body of the table Please revise your references to make sure that they follow the PLOS ONE referencing style It is encouraged to have your manuscript undergo a professional English language edition to suit publication standards ============================== Please submit your revised manuscript by Sep 16 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. 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The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf 2. Please ensure that you include a title page within your main document. We do appreciate that you have a title page document uploaded as a separate file, however, as per our author guidelines (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-title-page) we do require this to be part of the manuscript file itself and not uploaded separately. Could you therefore please include the title page into the beginning of your manuscript file itself, listing all authors and affiliations. 3. Please include a new copy of Table 1 in your manuscript; the current table is difficult to read. Please follow the link for more information: https://blogs.plos.org/plos/2019/06/looking-good-tips-for-creating-your-plos-figures-graphics/ 4. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Partly ******** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: No ****** 5. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: L1: The title can be improved by adding “associated factors” instead of “predictors” given the cross-sectional nature of included studies instead of cohort studies. Abstract L23-24: Add “s” to “pooled proportion”; “positive” before “attitude” and “prevention” before “practice” L32: Add “s” to “pooled proportion”; “positive” before “attitude” and “prevention” before “practice” Introduction L71: Add a preposition “in” after “results” L74: Add “s” to “pooled proportion” Methods L83: Add “an” before amendment; “made” instead of “done”; and “an” before additional outcome. L93-94: Rewrite the sentence “In addition, articles included were cross-sectional study design written only in English until December 10, 2023.” to improve grammar. Discussion L236: The term “in the world” after the word “pandemic” is redundant. Please remove it. L237-238: Change the order of words in “a lot of people have died and suffered from it”: suffer to come before death. L238-239: “The World Health Organization (WHO) does not … or the invention of the drug” is not clear. Please rewrite to improve clarity. L239-240: The sentence “The best management for the disease is relieving the symptoms, not the virus” needs to be rewritten. L241-243: The sentence “Regular studies are needed to perform any intervention, advocacy, and health education and communication program, even to change knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 among students in Ethiopia” needs to be rewritten. L243: The sentence “Due to scarcity among students . . .” is not clear. Please rewrite. Strengths and limitations The included studies assessed adequate knowledge, positive attitude, and prevention practice by different sets of questions formulated by respective authors and not standardized. This variability in the assessment criteria affects pooling. I suggest this to be considered as a limitation. L318: Use the word “generalizability” instead of “generalization”. Conclusions L327-328: Rewrite the sentence “The pooled proportion of attitudes and practices eradicated in 2021 from 2020 year indicates the need for more intervention, advocacy, and policy change” L329: Add “positive” before “attitudes”. L330: “The result also pointed out the need to give attention for male” should be rewritten as “attention to” “females” instead of “males” as per your results. References Many of the references need to be rewritten. Fig 3 and 6 headings: add “positive” before “attitude”. ****** 6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: Yes: Dr. Basil Tumaini ******** [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314451.r001
Revision 1
14 Oct 2024 Author Response RESPONSE TO REVIEWERS Submission ID: PONE-D-24-12869 Title: Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 and associated factors among students in Ethiopia: Systematic review and meta-analysis Journal Name: PLOS ONE Academic Editor: Festo Casmir Shayo, M.D, M.Med., PhD Date: 10/10/2024 Dear editors and reviewers Thank you for providing valuable comments, suggestions, and coordination to improve the quality of our manuscript. As per your request, we have made appropriate revisions, which are highlighted in green in the 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes' document. The original document titled 'manuscript' has been submitted separately. We have also provided a point-by-point response to each reviewer's and editor's comments, with page numbers referring to the revised manuscript file. We are looking forward to the outcome of your assessment. Thank you for your valuable time and consideration. Academic editor comments 1. In Tables 2 to 6: Please remove all vertical lines and retain only three horizontal lines: one under the title, one above the column heading, and one between the column headings and the body of the table Authors’ response: Thank you for your comment, correction was made from Table 2 to 6. 2. Please revise your references to make sure that they follow the PLOS ONE referencing style Authors’ response: Thank you for your comment. The comment is correct, and the necessary correction has been made. 3. It is encouraged to have your manuscript undergo a professional English language edition to suit publication standards Authors’ response: Thank you for your comment. The comment is correct, and the necessary correction has been made. Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Partly Authors’ response: Thank you for your comment, we corrected have the conclusion part. 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Authors’ response: Thank you for your comment. 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? Reviewer #1: Yes Authors’ response: Thank you for your comment. 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? Reviewer #1: No Authors’ response: Thank you for your comment. The comment is correct, and the necessary correction has been made. 5. Review Comments to the Author 1. Reviewer #1: L1: The title can be improved by adding “associated factors” instead of “predictors” given the cross-sectional nature of included studies instead of cohort studies. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment. The reviewer was right, and the change was made on page 1. Abstract 2. L23-24: Add “s” to “pooled proportion”; “positive” before “attitude” and “prevention” before “practice” Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer was right, and the change was made on page 2. 3. L32: Add “s” to “pooled proportion”; “positive” before “attitude” and “prevention” before “practice” Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer is right, and the change was made on page 2. Introduction 4. L71: Add a preposition “in” after “results” Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer is right, and the change was made on page 4. 5. L74: Add “s” to “pooled proportion” Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer is right, and the change was made on page 4. Methods 6. L83: Add “an” before amendment; “made” instead of “done”; and “an” before additional outcome. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer is right, and the change was made on page 5. 7. L93-94: Rewrite the sentence “In addition, articles included were cross-sectional study design written only in English until December 10, 2023.” to improve grammar. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer is right, and the change was made on page 5. Discussion 8. L236: The term “in the world” after the word “pandemic” is redundant. Please remove it. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; correction was made on page 17. 9. L237-238: Change the order of words in “a lot of people have died and suffered from it”: suffer to come before death. Authors’ response: Thanks, the reviewer is right and the correction was made on page 17. 10. L238-239: “The World Health Organization (WHO) does not … or the invention of the drug” is not clear. Please rewrite to improve clarity. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; correction was made on page 17. 11. L239-240: The sentence “The best management for the disease is relieving the symptoms, not the virus” needs to be rewritten. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; correction was made on page 17. 12. L241-243: The sentence “Regular studies are needed to perform any intervention, advocacy, and health education and communication program, even to change knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 among students in Ethiopia” needs to be rewritten. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; correction was made on page 17. 13. L243: The sentence “Due to scarcity among students . . .” is not clear. Please rewrite. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; correction was made on page 17. Strengths and limitations 14. The included studies assessed adequate knowledge, positive attitude, and prevention practice by different sets of questions formulated by respective authors and not standardized. This variability in the assessment criteria affects pooling. I suggest this to be considered as a limitation. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer is right. Correction was made on page 21. 15. L318: Use the word “generalizability” instead of “generalization”. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; Correction was made on page 21. Conclusions 16. L327-328: Rewrite the sentence “The pooled proportion of attitudes and practices eradicated in 2021 from 2020 year indicates the need for more intervention, advocacy, and policy change” Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; Correction was made on page 21. 17. L329: Add “positive” before “attitudes”. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; Correction was made on page 21. 18. L330: “The result also pointed out the need to give attention for male” should be rewritten as “attention to” “females” instead of “males” as per your results. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment; Correction was made on page 21. References 19. Many of the references need to be rewritten. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer is right, and the change was made. 20. Fig 3 and 6 headings: add “positive” before “attitude”. Authors’ response: Thanks for your comment, the reviewer is right and the correction was made on Fig 3 and Fig 6. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314451.r002
12 Nov 2024 Decision Letter - Festo Casmir Shayo, Editor Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 and associated factors among students in Ethiopia : Systematic review and meta-analysis PONE-D-24-12869R1 Dear Dr. Tenagnework Eseyneh Dagnaw, We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements. Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication. An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Festo Casmir Shayo, M.D, M.MMED, PhD. Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation. Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed ******** 2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 6. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: The authors have responded to review comments satisfactorily. The manuscript may thus be considered for publication in PLOS ONE. ****** 7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: Yes: Dr. Basil Tumaini ******** https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314451.r003
Formally Accepted
28 Nov 2024 Acceptance Letter - Festo Casmir Shayo, Editor PONE-D-24-12869R1 PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Dagnaw, I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team. At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following: * All references, tables, and figures are properly cited * All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission, * There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset If revisions are needed, the production department will contact you directly to resolve them. If no revisions are needed, you will receive an email when the publication date has been set. At this time, we do not offer pre-publication proofs to authors during production of the accepted work. Please keep in mind that we are working through a large volume of accepted articles, so please give us a few weeks to review your paper and let you know the next and final steps. Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Festo Casmir Shayo Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314451.r004

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